Anita Hill documentary to premiere at Sundance

ANITA HILL (AP Photo/Greg Gibson)
When Clarence Thomas was nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court, law professor Anita Hill came forward to allege that Thomas sexually harassed her when she worked for him at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Testifying under oath, Hill was lambasted by the white men of the Senate Judiciary Committee and treated as a liar and criminal.

It was the scandal that brought the taboo subject of workplace sexual harassment to light in the 1990s.

Sundance describes the documentary as a series of event that “[brought] sexual politics into the national consciousness and [fueled] 20 years of international debate on the issues.”

The director, Academy-Award-winning filmmaker Freida Lee Mock, has a repertoire of directing diverse productions from a documentary on Vietnam prisoners of war to a feature on architect Maya Lin.

On October 15th, 1991, Anita Hill testified during Clarence Thomas’ Supreme Court confirmation hearings that he had made comments of a sexual nature when he was her supervisor at the Department of Education and the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Thomas has adamantly denied the accusations, and after the contentious hearings, he was narrowly confirmed and eventually sworn in for a lifetime appointment in the Supreme Court.

The 2013 Sundance Film Festival will be held January 17-27 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance.